


Unexpected miracles

by halfeatenmoon



Category: Shoujo Kakumei Utena | Revolutionary Girl Utena
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-25
Updated: 2019-09-25
Packaged: 2020-10-28 09:37:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,730
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20776439
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/halfeatenmoon/pseuds/halfeatenmoon
Summary: Juri wins her duel.





	Unexpected miracles

Juri knew better than to trust the Rose Bride by now. Saionji clearly believed that she was genuine, and Miki too. Utena, of course, believed everything the Rose Bride told her; she thought she was saving her, as if anyone could save her. But Juri was older, she'd been here longer, seen this play out with the duelists who had gone before. She knew that Anthy did nothing without a reason. So when the girl stopped her in the hallway and offered her an orange rose, she knew that she wanted _something_.

For a moment, the gesture made Juri forget where she was; she could have sworn it was Shiori offering her a rose, a hope, a miracle. All she knew was that it was no coincidence, that Anthy had done it on purpose, and that Juri hated it.

She still wasn't going to duel now, Juri thought, furiously. That would be playing right into Himemiya's hands. But she couldn't shake the doubt. That maybe miracles were real. That that was what Tenjou and Himemiya had together, the miracle that had been out of her reach. To love a woman who also loved you. She was jealous, and she was hopeful, and she was enraged that Himemiya had given her hope again when she had worked so hard to free herself from that torture. The next time she saw Tenjou, she was laying down a challenge almost before she realised what she was doing.

There were no such things as miracles, and Juri would prove it by cutting Utena's rose to the ground. 

Duelling Utena felt the way fencing did, on Juri's best days.

_There is no miracle,_ Juri thought, viciously. _But if there is, it will be mine._

She lunged, a move of clean, focused power, every muscle singing. The simple elation of her mind and body, totally in tune. She turned, still on guard, and watched Utena's white rose flutter to the ground.

Juri carefully kept her face expressionless when the sword dissolved in Utena's hand, and when she crumbled at the way Himemiya bid her goodbye. It hadn't pained her to watch Saionji fall apart when he lost the Rose Bride, but she didn't feel the way Saionji felt. The worst thing about Utena was that Juri could understand how she loved, could see that she looked at Anthy the same way Juri had once looked at the girl who wouldn't love her back. She hated Utena's innocence, the way she didn't realise the Rose Bride was whatever the champion wanted her to be, that she was so happy because she hadn't yet realised that the Rose Bride's love wasn't real.

Well, now she knew. Juri tore her eyes away from where Utena crouched on the floor of the arena, her breath coming in loud, ugly sobs.

"I am the Rose Bride. From this day forward, I belong to you."

"Come, Himemiya," she said, and offered her arm. The Bride - _Juri's_ bride - took it, and Juri felt something inside her click into place.

"May I call you Juri-sama?" Himemiya asked, and Juri could barely suppress a shiver.

"Yes," she said. And then, more softly, "Please." 

Juri hadn't thought about what happened next. How she could tell Anthy what she wanted, whether Anthy could really grant it. How it would make her feel. She certainly hadn't thought as far as Anthy moving into her dorm room, and she really hadn't thought through what it meant that Anthy was her bride.

"What are you doing?" she asked, flatly, when Anthy put her arms around Juri's neck, and pulled their bodies together.

"I'm the Bride, and you’re the Betrothed. I'm yours to take."

Juri stood as still as stone, telling herself to push Anthy away, but she liked the feel of Anthy's smaller body against her own, Anthy's breasts soft against her chest and her arms pulling them together, somehow gentle and firm at the same time. She wanted to pull Anthy's body to hers, press her against the wall and crush Anthy's mouth with her own. After all, it wasn't hard to imagine Shiori in her place.

Instead, she took hold of Anthy's wrists and moved her arms down at her sides, stepping out of her embrace. "I don't want that from you."

"But you fought. You won the duel. You can claim your prize."

"That's not what I fought for!"

"Then what do you want, Juri-sama?"

The answer was right there, but it stuck in her throat. She had won, and it was hers to ask, but she still felt like a fool for hoping.

Juri did not want to talk to Touga about this, but when she saw his smirk across the courtyard, she supposed it was inevitable. She could normally ignore that look, but she hated seeing it aimed at her. She tried to look cold and unaffected as he pulled out a seat at her table.

"So how was it? The night of your engagement?"

"Don't be so crude, Touga."

"What? I'm merely enquiring how you felt after winning a duel."

She could avoid answering by taking her time to chew the takoyaki that Anthy had packed for her. She tried not to think about how much care she had put into it. In spite of it being their first day as betrothed. Or because of it.

“It was fine, thank you,” she said, and immediately took another bite.

“Fine? I should think a woman with the qualities of the Rose Bride would be better than _fine_.”

“Well, you might know if you ever won a duel.”

“Ah, I should be so lucky! Perhaps I should challenge you after all.” He leaned forward, one hand on his chin. “At least I would appreciate the gifts a Rose Bride can bestow on her engagement night.”

“Is that what this is to you? Is it just about sex?” Juri asked, sharply. “What happened to the power to revolutionise the world? What happened to seeking eternity?”

“I still want those things. I just don’t see why, in seeking those things, I should deny myself other pleasures. Do you?”

“It’s not that simple.”

“You still want your miracle, don’t you?” Touga sat back, and flicked his hair over his shoulder. “You can have it, and the Rose Bride. Unless you really don’t want her.”

Juri looked away, to where Anthy was sitting a few tables away. When Utena had asked to speak with Anthy, Juri had waved them away, sitting down alone with her lunch. Now she could see Anthy’s posture getting more and more stiff, sitting up straighter, as Utena grew more and more distraught.

It was the wrong time to think about the tenderness that Anthy had shown her last night. It might not have been genuine, just the Rose Bride doing what she had to do. It didn’t mean anything to either of them. It was only because Juri was lonely that she liked it.

“Wanting the Rose Bride is just asking for heartbreak.” She nodded to the scene in front of them, where Utena was now clinging to Anthy’s hand as the Rose Bride tried to gently pry her away. "That's what's waiting for me, if I get too attached."

"Only if you lose." Touga smiled. "You're a champion fencer. Not just the best in the school, but the best in our whole prefecture. Why would you lose?" 

If the Rose Bride was offering. If Juri was lonely, and she didn’t see that changing. If that was all there was, then what was the harm in saying yes to pleasure?

If there was even the possibility that miracles existed, then why wouldn’t Juri ask?

“Excuse me,” she said, standing up from the table. “But I think my betrothed needs my help.”

It’s not that she cared about Anthy. It’s that rescuing her from a deeply awkward conversation was her best alternative to punching the smirk off Touga’s face as he said “Perhaps we’ll make a prince of you yet.”

"Close your eyes," Shiori said, softly.

Juri couldn't help but hesitate.

"It's not a trick, Juri-san. I just want to make this good for you. I want to surprise you.”

“You’ve already surprised me more than I ever thought you could,” Juri replied. But when Shiori’s hand came over her eyes, warm and familiar, Juri felt a thrill right through her body. She gasped and arched her neck under Shiori’s touch, surrendering without another thought. She would have hated the surrender, if it hadn’t come with the ecstasy of something she’d sought after for so long. And sensations that were, frankly, ecstatic all on their own.

The feeling of Shiori undoing her shirt left her dizzy with anticipation. Her kisses down Juri’s belly left burning blooms of desire in their wake. She groaned when she felt the pressure of Shiori’s mouth through her pants, and Shiori couldn’t undo them fast enough.

She never imagined Shiori could be like this. Taking her time, building Juri’s pleasure layer upon layer, but not teasing or pulling her around. When Shiori’s fingers stroked slowly from her entrance up to the top of her cleft and Juri let out a cry, Shiori didn’t pause or stop, but did it again, just the same, responding to exactly what Juri needed.

Moments like this were never exactly as you imagined them. And Juri had imagined this, over and over, in the fencing ring and in the showers and in this very bed, and every time she saw Shiori in the halls. It wasn’t how she imagined. It wasn’t really like Shiori at all.

By the time Juri was a trembling mess, ready to come, she didn’t care any more. This wasn’t what Juri had imagined, but it was what she wanted. Someone to hold her like she mattered, like her pleasure mattered, all for its own sake. She didn’t want her miracle any more. She wanted this. That’s why she broke her promise and opened her eyes when she felt the perfect, unbearable heat of her lover’s mouth between her legs. She took in the purple hair between her fingers and the dark eyes looking up at her in surprise, and she came chanting Anthy’s name.

If there was a miracle, it was this: that Juri woke the next morning with Anthy at her side, and didn't wish that she were somebody else.


End file.
